Community

A lease has been signed with the Myers Group to open Foodland IGA on Sept. 9, the day after Alaskan and Proud closes its doors.

Myers Group, LLC president, Tyler Myers, has signed a 10-year lease with options, says Gary Rosenberger, President of Foodland, Inc.

“People from outside that know the Myers Group have nothing but good things to say about the Myers Group, and so we’re happy. We’re also just happy to have somebody,” Rosenberger says. “I was worried that it might go dark down there at Foodland and I’d be down there mopping up floors from thawed out freezers, but that isn’t going to happen, so yeah, I’m thrilled.”

Rosenberger says he met with Tyler Myers and a representative from the wholesale company Super Value, when they visited Juneau a couple months ago.

“He told me that he tries to set the store up by looking at the people who live in the area,” Rosenberger says. “He wants to go a little more top end, I think, and he wants to pretty it up inside. He’ll spend some money and we might have to, too, in order to get it up to what he needs. The salesman that was with him sells groceries all the way from Kenai to South America and he says that Myers stores are beautiful and they’re run real nice, so that was enough for me.”

John Williams of Juneau Real Estate brokered the deal. Rosenberger says Williams had his “feelers out” for some time to find the right company. Williams would not be interviewed, but in a news release he said Alaska Marine Lines played an important role in getting Foodland, Inc and the Myers Group together. “AML gave us numerous names and phone numbers of businesses in the Pacific Northwest, and one of those calls lead us to the Myers Group. We think they are the best possible choice we could have made.”

Rosenberger says the next step is to find a retailer to fill the empty space next to the supermarket. The 6,000 square foot space was once part of Foodland Super Drug, which shrunk several years ago to a small pharmacy and gift shop. The pharmacy in the store recently moved to WalMart.

“Hopefully we can get another drug store in there,” Rosenberger says.

He says it wasn’t clear if Myers Group would need more space, so they decided not to market the empty store until the grocery deal was signed. He says once Foodland IGA gets set up, he will talk with Myers about additional space requirements.

According to Rosenberger, Tyler Myers told him he would like to have a drug store in Foodland IGA, but “he didn’t say he would go forth and try to find one. But if he doesn’t we may shop around,” Rosenberger says.

The Whidbey Island-based Myers Group operates five IGA stores in western Washington, including markets in downtown Seattle and Tacoma. Myers says the Juneau store is great opportunity to grow his business, which also includes gas stations and hardware stores.

“I was asked to come up about two months ago to come up and take a look at the store and see if we had an interest, and absolutely, positively fell in love with the community and what I saw, he says.”

Myers says he’ll retain all the A & P employees. He also expects to undertake an extensive remodel sometime in the next year, essentially modernizing the inside of the store. Myers says he’s planning to put his own money into the upgrades, and keep the store open throughout the process.

He says he’ll seek customer input before making any changes.

“We’re not a company that is cookie cutter, every store is exactly the same like you might see with a chain store. If we have a customer that comes in and says, ‘Hey we’re looking for a certain kind of ethnic food,’ then we have a lot of suppliers and we are able to go out and find that item. And that’s really how our stores are merchandised and that’s what dictates how we go to business,” Myers says.

Details of the agreement signed by the Myers Group and Foodland, Inc. were not released. The Foodland Shopping Center is on the market for $13.5 million, but Myers declined to say if the agreement includes a right of first refusal on any sale. The Foodland center’s assessed value is $15.3. The Myers Group is in the business of shopping center development, and Myers says he might be interested in buying the complex at some point — just not right now.

The Juneau School District is holding its annual School Summit Thursday evening.

Billed as a report card to the public, school administrators will explain the school district vision, the strategic plan, academic progress as well as indicators of success.

“These are measurements the board of education has put in place to provide accountability for different means of measuring progress,” says Kristin Bartlett, district spokeswoman.

Bartlett says the board is using seven so-called indicators of success, with the primary focus on achievement, then professional development, which is support for school district staff.

“One of the other indicators will be attendance for both students and staff members, graduation rate, core standards, resource allocation and then school readiness, meaning how ready are young children when they enter our school district and what can we do as a community to help support families and getting their children ready for school,” Bartlett says.

But the summit isn’t all a list. Bartlett says parents and community members should bring questions and observations, because they’ll have a chance to talk with principals of individual schools.

One session will focus on a district improvement plan to increase student achievement.

The 3rd annual School Summit runs from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday, in the Thunder Mountain High School auditorium.

Consultation for ANC’s is an addition to the current policy of tribal consultation that was enacted in December.

“This would allow Alaska Native Corporations at the regional, village and urban level to consult with the Department of Interior on any policies or actions that impact their interests,” said Bryan Newland, senior policy adviser the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington, D.C.

That means ANCs’s can consult Interior about issues in any agency within the department; from the Fish and Wildlife Service to the Bureau of Land Management to the National Park Service.

The plan is now in effect, and Newland said Interior will implement it as responsibly and flexibly as possible. And, he added, BIA consulted with Alaska Native Corporations and tribes alike when crafting it, taking into consideration the sensitive issue of nation status.

“We know that this is not the government-to-government relationship that the United States shares with Indian tribes, and Alaska Native Villages are included in that category,” Newland said. “This is a different legal relationship. And this policy was drafted with that in mind, in an attempt to be respectful of that government-to-government, nation-to-nation relationship we have with Indian tribes.”

Mike Williams, Chief of the Yupiit Nation, disagreed with the policy.

“Our position is to keep the integrity of the tribal governments. And to not allow any other governmental or nongovernmental organizations to have the same privileges and same status as our sovereign tribal governments,” Williams said.

Consultation for the Alaska Native Corporations, Williams contends, minimizes the voice of Native communities. And that could have an effect on negotiations with the Department of Interior.

Williams said in his village, Akiak, the Native community institutes the Indian Health Service and the Indian Child Welfare Act.  Because of tribal consultation, they can deal directly with the federal government.

“When we consult with the federal government on federal budget issues, we have the capability of telling the government these budgets are inadequate,” he said. “But it has really generated the spirit of self-determination in our community.”

Some Native Corporations welcomed the news with a bit of skepticism. Jaeleen Araujo, vice-president at Sealaska Corporation, helped draft the policy at the request of the Department of Interior.

She said the corporation is encouraged by any sign indicating the federal government is willing to take into consideration Sealaska’s concerns on decisions that may affect its land, resources and shareholders.

“If some agency in Southeast is going to do something that could impact our ANCSA land, then obviously we have more of a priority in expressing our opinion than potentially some other tribes,” she said.

Araujo said the policy grants Sealaska Corporation that priority. Sealaska is not a tribe, though Araujo maintains it’s important tribes and clans also be heard, especially when dealing with issues of historical land.

The implementation could prove cumbersome. Araujo said the tribal relationship with the government is based on federal trust agreements, whereas the ANC relationship is statutory.

“I can understand their rationale for doing it. I just hope that having two administrative processes doesn’t become too much of a burden,” Araujo said Thursday.

The policy is limited to the Department of Interior.

That means Sealaska won’t be able to directly consult with the federal government one of its primary assets – land in the Tongass National Forest.  The U.S. Forest Service is part of the Department of Agriculture.

A proposal to beef up bus service on Riverside Drive will be put on hold until a Capital Transit Development Plan is revised.

Juneau’s bus service considered moving some portions of Route 4 off Mendenhall Loop Road and onto the south end of Riverside Drive, to provide service closer to Thunder Mountain High School. The city held several hearings earlier this summer and took a survey of riders.

City Manager Kim Kiefer says changing the route isn’t possible with current connections. She says the city’s public transportation plan will be updated instead.

“And that plan will look at the route for Riverside and look more in-depth at how we have our current route systems in place and how can we do it so we would be able to provide some level of service to the Dimond Park area,” she said.

The Assembly Monday night heard an update on the Capital Transit plan at the Committee of the Whole.

Bartlett Regional Hospital has a new Chief Financial Officer.

Certified Public Accountant Ken Brough (pronounced Bruff) will start in October. He’s the second new executive to be hired by the city-owned hospital this year. Chief Executive Officer Chris Harff has been on the job just two weeks.

Brough comes from Wyoming, where he is CFO for Star Valley Medical Center in Afton. The non-profit hospital is a joint acute care / nursing home operation. Brough also has managed professional accounting companies and was a CPA in the Salt Lake City office of the financial services company KPMG.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Utah State University.

According to a news release from the hospital, Brough has traveled extensively to Alaska for work and play. His daughter and husband own a sport fishing operation in Southeast Alaska.

For more than two decades, Bartlett Regional Hospital has been run by an outside management company. Last year, the board of directors decided to hire its own CEO and CFO.

On the eve of the new school year, the Juneau School District and Juneau Education Association have reached a tentative agreement.

After months of negotiations, the administration and teachers union reached impasse in May and called for mediation.

Juneau attorney Vance Sanders met with both sides on Wednesday and Thursday. JEA president Ben Kriegmont called them intense days.

“Vance Sanders did a great job,” he said. “You know I think both the school district and JEA moved away from some things that they wanted so we could reach an agreement.”

In a news release, District Superintendent Glenn Gelbrich said the two sides “were able to develop an improved contract within severe financial limitations.”

The teachers’ last three-year contract expired on June 30th. Kriegmont said it’s disappointing the new agreement is for only one year.

“It doesn’t really put it behind us for very long. I believe December is when the district or the association would file a letter to open negotiations, which we’ll do,” he said. “When they’ll schedule the first negotiation sessions probably won’t be until January, but for the new year that’s where we’ll be; looking at getting back to the bargaining table.”

JEA has about 400 members. Kriegmont said they will vote by Aug. 30th on the tentative agreement. The school board will take a ratification vote the following week.

The 2012 – 13 school year begins Monday.